Mine in Rock Canyon?

[offroadcmpr]

I think in a couple weeks I will try to get back up to the mine. We did see that passage that you said could be the bonneville tunnel. It may be passable. But like you said the ground was caved in, but it looked like someone had tried to go down the pit because of the climbing webbing attached to it.

On the second level there is another part that we were not able to get too.
Right before you get to the upper entrance, there is a passage that continues on to what I think is east. It went on for 50 yards or so, but then opened up to a big room. It was more of a big stope like crack. It was probably 30 feet high or so. There was another cave-in pit that went down, but there were two passages that continued on in the same direction, one right on top of the other. The lower one did not continue on very far, but we could not tell how far the upper passage went on. The upper passage is about 7 feet above the ground, but the wall/face is loose dirt, not solid rock so it would be difficult to climb. Plus you only have about 2 feet of level ground to work with because of the pit right behind you.

Craig - Did you see the passage I was talking about? Its on the upper level right before you get to the upper entrance.

[Mikezauner]

offroadcmpr: Let me know before you go up there and I'll join you. I should be available most weekends, save for weekends taken by trips with MU of course.

[cherokeepilot85]

I have seen and have some samples from the Hidden Treasure mine and they are of good quality and variety. Both my wife and I are more than excited to see the minerals in the Hidden Treasure. Easy or difficult, we would love to see the mineralized areas in the mine.

I found out about the Bonneville tunnel from the Utah AGRC mine database which lists the Monarch mine as having the Bonneville tunnel at one mile long being the main workings of the mine. It would be interesting to see the tunnel, if it still remains passable.
My prediction on my map of the location of the Bonneville tunnel is based on the fact that I didn't find the end of that tunnel, it follows a major fault surface (where the primary ore would likely have been found), the tunnel included two galleries for extracting ore near the fault, that was the only tunnel that had any mine cart track in it (possibly the main haulage tunnel), and the iron anchors for a large ore chute just outside the portal to the lower level all point to the possible location of the Bonneville tunnel. Don't quote me on my idea of where the B. tunnel is but it is just an idea from what I saw and compiled.

offroadcmpr - If you get up to the Monarch (Buckley) mine again you will have to let me know what you find if you get beyond that cave in and possibly into the Bonneville tunnel, I'm really interested to know what condition it is in and what mineral formations along with mining remains are still there. Sorry, but we didn't get up to the front of the 2nd level to see the large room and tunnels you mentioned, we were busy observing the minerals deeper in the 2nd level from the ladder and started running out of daylight for our descent back down the mountain. After reading about your findings (the large room) I was really disappointed and wished we had gone and explored it. I told my wife about what you found and she thought the same thing I did.

[lumansa]

glad i stumbled on this site. ive been trying to figure out the name of the mine (cave?) about a mile into rock canyon. when you get to the spot on the trail with two close bridges it is just off the trail to the left. I thought it was buckleys mine but after reading this thread im sure its not. the last couple weekends my buddies and i have been using this cave as a starting point to scramble up squaw.

[offroadcmpr]

Lumansa - I think I know the mine you are talking about. It doesn't go back very far, but it is right off the trail. I'm not sure if it has a name, I don't think it is big enough to have one. It is only a small audit.
To get to Buckleys you have to hike 30 minute to an hour off the trail to get to it. You end up about halfway up the cliffs by the time you get to it.

[cherokeepilot85]

I had a request for the location and directions to the Monarch (Buckley) mine. Here is what I have:

The Monarch (Buckley) mine is in Rock Canyon just east of Rock Canyon Park in Provo, UT. Hike up the main trail from the parking lot. When you pass over the first bridge, just under a mile from the parking lot, there will be a large talus (loose rock) field to your left. Hike up the talus field, there are trails that switch back but can be hard to see. When you reach the top of the talus field you will come upon a rock wall that rock climbers climb often. There is a trail that follows this wall to the west (left). Take that trail which will climb around the first ridge. The trail can be hard to discern at times but if you lose it the object is to stay near the rock wall which changes as you climb but will be present along the trail all the way to the mine portal. The trail winds around more ridges and eventually as you climb and migrate to the west you will come upon an area that has a well distinguished rock wall and basin that when I was there had melt water trickling off the wall. Also you will notice iron bars and eyes (loops) attached in the rock (part of the anchoring of a large ore chute). I have a picture below of the iron bars and eyes below that you can open. This iron will be the first thing you will notice when you get to the right spot. You will need to climb over a small wall to the right of the dry or trickling water fall. This will get you on the next level which is where the lower level mine entrance is. The mine portal is just to the left of a leaf tree (no leafs when we were there) which is all alone in that area of the mountain.
I hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to ask.


You can use the following coordinates to find the mine with a GPS or on Google Earth.
The coordinates to the mine portal +/- 21 feet (decimal degrees format):
40.268812
-111.616869

When you open the images below keep clicking on the image until it is as large as it gets, that way you will have the original size and detail.

Here is a photo of the iron anchors to the large ore chute for the lower haulage adit:
[img][/img]

Here is a map I made from Google earth of how to get to the mine:
[img][/img]

[offroadcmpr]

So Mike and I were able to make it up to Buckleys on Saturday, the weather was nice and we were able to finish exploring some of the mine.

We were able to explore the rest of the tunnel on the first floor that could possibly be the Bonneville tunnel.
Here is a picture of the piece of rail



We went around the pit and followed the tunnel for another 50 yards or so only to meet up with a dead end. The end was not caved in, it looked like they just stopped digging at that point. So that makes me think that may not be the bonneville tunnel, or at least not that passage. We also found the start of some soda straw formations on the ceiling.

The longest ones were only about a half inch long, but it that side of the pit seemed less traveled then the rest, probably because you had to crawl on your stomach to get to it, and then inch your way around a deep pit.

Speaking of the pit, I had mentioned before that I saw some climbing webbing draped over a piece of wood that was propped across the top.
This is what the pit looked like.


We found something really interesting about the pit. Right off to the side there were two climbing bolts that someone had bolted onto the wall! So it looks like someone thought it was worth drilling in and putting them in to rappel down the pit. This makes me really curious to see what is down at the bottom. We were not really able to see down to the bottom, it went down at least 50 feet.

We may have to go back there with a rope sometime.


As we finished exploring that section, we found a couple of shafts that went up to a different level. One had a ladder, but the bottom of the ladder was 20 feet off the ground. The other one had no ladder or wood, but because the walls were not that far apart I was able to climb up 20 feet or so. I looked like it kept on going, but I didn't feel comfortable climbing up much higher as I did not have a rope and it was a long and difficult hike back down to the car. I did not see the top of those shafts from the second level, so I am not real sure where they go, if anywhere.


That is about all that is on the first level. So we climbed up the ladder to the second. Here is what the ladder looks like. This is looking up from the bottom.


We went back to the second level where we found the bigger room that I had talked about earlier. I got some pictures but because there was dust in the air, they did not turn out so well. But we were able to look down the pit.

As you can see there is another piece of rail that had fallen in. The pit was only about 30 feet deep, but it had lots of debris on the bottom, and when we dropped a rock down it sounded kind of hollow when it hit. I am not really sure what that means.

As I have mentioned before, right next to this pit there are two passages. One right on top of the other. We explored the bottom one, but it did not go back very far. Once again we were not able to find a safe way to get to the upper passage. I was not able to see how far it goes back, so I am not sure how far it continues on. This room looks like a mixture of a cave in and a cave. There were some formations, and were were even able to find some parts on the ceiling where there used to be stalactites several inches in diameter that people had broken off. That makes me really mad, I hate it when people do that. So that part of the mine/cave seems to have been there for a while.

That was about all of the passages that were able to find. We just climbed out after that. So it was a good trip, we were able to solve a couple puzzles, and find new ones.

[andy]

Has anybody run into James and my "friend", Peter? We left him sitting in a gallery on the second level, along the passageway to the upper portal. And trust me, if he was there, you would have seen him.

[emick]

Just found this site while looking online for a map to Buckley's Mine to give my Nephew who leaves to go to school in Provo in a couple months. Back in the early 90's when I was going to school out there, this used to be our favorite group-date hike. Pack a picnic, hike up to the mine, get nice and muddy inside the mine, and then crawl out the upper entrance which opens out onto a ledge overlooking Provo and Utah lake and watch the sun go down. I have wooed many a woman while covered in mine mud sitting up on top of that ledge! Old-man Buckley would have been mighty proud! In fact, with a view like you get up there, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he didn't woo a pioneer woman or two himself (probably at least two though--with the area's history of Polygamy and all!) We had one girl with us once who got too scared to hike back down the scree slopes in the dark so she and her date ended up spending the night up there. Can't say I blame her--coming down some of those slopes is sketchy in the day, not to mention in pitch dark.

We've scrambled up, down, and through every nook and cranny in there and unless it's caved in, there is no entrance to Bonnevill tunnel--wish I knew where it was though. There is, however, a cool feature that I haven't seen mentioned on the thread...Somewhere up on the second level, after you go up the ladder, there used to be a vertical shaft (approx 40 ft. deep) off the main tunnel with a 2x12 plank laid across it that you could walk across. Instead of crossing it, if you lower yourself down into the shaft while holding onto the plank, you can catch your feet on a ledge about 4-5 feet down into the shaft. From there, circle around the perimeter of the shaft (you can still hold onto the plank for most of it) until you get to a very small opening about shin level. It's tough to see unless you're looking for it, and I doubt that most people who go in there ever see it. Squirm through there and back about 10-15 feet and it opens up into a small room (not more than 2-3 people can fit in at a time) and the walls / ceiling are covered with clay deposits--looks like it's just oozing out of the rocks. Unless someone has wrecked them all (which I'm sure they probably have) you might still find some of my original art work--mostly little miniature Gumbi and Mr. Bills which I left perched strategically and beautifully on little ledges for future generations to marvel at. In fact, in one of my more mature and refined moments of artistic brilliance, I think I even made a little clay phallus (that's technical archeological talk for a guy's "junk"). Better squash that one if it's there--it was pretty small and we don't want future generations of spelunkers to think that we were so anatomically challenged!

If you haven't been, it's well worth the hike up. Even better if you have someone you're looking to woo!

[cherokeepilot85]

Newspaper article about the Monarch mine from August 1903

Here is a newspaper article I just stumbled across which discusses the early days of the Monarch mine in Rock Canyon.
The article details much of the early workings of the mine. The article is from the August 1903 Salt Lake Mining Review

[John]

Nice find

[offroadcmpr]

I will probably head up this spring also sometime. Luckily the snow melts on that side of the canyon first. I just don't want to attempt it with a bunch of snow and ice everywhere on the hike up.

[josh bernhard]

The pictures (linked thumbnails) in the quote are trying to download something onto both my computer at home and the one I am on now at Weber State. These should probably be removed because the virus scan is telling me that it downloaded four Trojans onto the harddrive.

[KDT1970]

I encountered the same problem with the trojans, these links should be removed. I you happen to get the stuff poping up on you computer. It is best to use your task manager to end all of your internet exploere programs, that way you dont have to click on the acuall window wich can trigger other windows and popups.

[bladerunnerevan]

Hey guys!
I just visted buckley's mine last weekend, I think it was January 28th or 29th. Its a tough hike up there but definitely worth it, there isn't much snow either since that side of Rock Canyon tends to get a lot of sun. Going up the ladder was really scary, and then going down was even worse. The shaft gets very tight and my backpack got stuck about half way down. I found some "metal rock" in the upper part of the mine maybe something like iron...does anyone know? Also i heard that this mine had 4 levels, I think I only saw 3, the main one, up the ladder, then the top gate. I also found a tunnel leading back pretty far that i didn't have time to explore completely. Hopefully i'll get back up there soon. Any way i'm new into this mine exploring thing and its pretty sweet, if you have any suggestions on good mines in the Provo/Orem area please let me know. I also ventured down to Santaquin a while back but all of the mines I found were collapsed.